AP Photo/Hasan Jamali theatlantic.com
2011 was a year without precedent for the peoples of the Middle East and North Africa region. It was a year in which millions of people of all ages and backgrounds, especially the young and often with women to the fore, flooded on to the streets to demand change. Often, they continued to do so in the face of extreme violence meted out by the military and security forces of those who claimed to govern – and who had continued to enjoy and to squander the fruits of power – in their very name.
This is how Amnesty International begins its report Year of Rebellion: the State of Human Rights in the Middle East and North Africa (p. 1), a fruitful reflection on the ongoing social and political movements that have often been addressed as the "Arab Spring". And there is also the following video, bringing together views of people from all over the world; as one of the interviewees says, "I will remember forever that the power is in the people's hands".
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